Sign



March 1936. s. SLUTSKY 2,032,895

SIGN Filed Oct. 21, 1934 SAMUEL SLUTSKY BY 1 0m. ATTORNEY 1 T EL N INVENTORH V Patented Mar. 3, 1936 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 9 Claims.

The invention relates in general to a sign and relates particularly to a preformed letter, number, word, symbol, or other design, hereinafter referred to generically as a sign character. The

present disclosure constitutes a development of the invention disclosed in my pending application Serial No. 700,209 filed November 29, 1933.

The primary object of the invention is to provide a simplified form of sign, or component part thereof, by means of which the characters can be viewed from the front side of the sign and will be clearly visible either by the sun or other direct light which impinges on the front side of the sign, asduring the day time, and which are also visible from light transmitted therethrough from the rear side of the sign in night illumination.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a sign which will be highly notice-impelling in both day light and night use and which at the same time will provide a pleasing and artistic appearance.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a structure which may be easily and cheaply constructed as preformed characters and which will thus lend themselves to accurate reproduction of the same characters as a factory production, and which will permit the different characters to be easily installed in position in forming the completed sign, even though the sign itself is. not a factory product, but is constructed in situ.

Various other objects and advantages of the invention will be in part obvious from an inspection of the accompanying drawing and in part will be more fully set forth in the following particular description of one form of sign embodying the invention, and construction and combination of parts hereinafter set forth and claimed.

In the accompanying drawing:

Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of a portion of the sign showing the character H, with part of the support broken away to show the attaching flange of the character and constituting a preferred embodiment of the invention;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged, transverse, sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; and

Fig. 3 is a View similar to Fig. 2 showing another embodiment of the invention.

In the drawing and referring first to the disclosure in Figs. 1 and 2, there is shown a support 24 which in this instance is flexible, preferably the usual canvas or other fabric now employed in forming signs, but it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to canvas, or other flexible supports, but may be a rigid support such as the sheet of glass 25 shown in Fig. 3.

The support 24 is provided with a cut-out portion 26 in the instant case having the outline of the capital letter H. Fitted in the cut-out por- 5 tion is a preformed article 21 forming a sign character and in the instant case having the outline of the letter H. The character 21 is provided with an outlining attaching flange 28 which backlaps the support 24 and is secured to the rear 10 side of the support by means of an adhesive, such as a cement, 29. The character 2! includes within the outline of the, flange 28 an exposed character forming portion 30 which in the illustrated instance is somewhat rounded in cross section as '15 shown in Figs. 2 and 3 and projects through the cut-out in the canvas to form a raised character. The character is formed primarily of a rugged layer or body portion 3| of transparent, colorless material and which has sufficient rigidity to maintain the character in its manufactured form. In the case of the showing in Fig. 2 the letter character is made of Cellophane, celluloid, or similar composition material pressed to form as is usual in forming such characters.

The body portion 3| is backed by two thin layers of material, an intermediate layer 32 of opaque material and a rear or backing layer 33 of transparent and preferably colored transparent or translucent material. The intermediate layer 32 forms an outlining border as shown stippled in Fig. 1 and of itself forms in the instant case a skeleton or enlarged showing of the letter H. The central area of the exposed portion within the opaque border 32 is uncoated to leave the central portion transparent or at least translucent thus forming a character stroke 34 at the central or crown portion of the hollow body portion 3|. It will be noted likewise that the transparent portion 34 is of the same form as the outlining character, that is, it also forms a relatively smaller and solid capital letter H.

In the form of letter character from which this drawing was constructed, the border 32 was silvered and provides a brilliant metallic light reflecting area visible from the front side, that is the upper side of Fig. 2, through the transparent outer shell or body 3|. In this case the back layer 33 was tinted red so that the transparent portion 34 shows red when viewed from the front side of the sign. The red center 34 with the silver outline 32 as seen in Fig. 1 provides a highly artistic and pleasing form of sign when viewed by direct light impinged on the front side of the character. Of course at night 55 with no particular amount of front illumination, the sign appears as a red sign with the letter H showing at 34, of course, in reduced size from the daylightshowing which includes both the silver showing at 32 and the red showing at 34-. It will, of course, be understood that the illustration is simply by Way of example and it is within the scope of the invention to make the body portion 3| of a transparent but colored or tinted material; that the silver outlining ma terial 32 may be any opaque coating and that the backing coating may be colorless or of any suitable color or tint desired. While there has been disclosed a combination in which the outer edges of the character is opaque and the inner portion transparent, it is suggested that this arrangement may be reversed with the edges transparent or partly so and the centers of the characters solid, opaque or partially or wholly opaque. The illustrated arrangement suggests different possible'combinations of transparent and opaque parts of the single character with variable combinations of colors both in the transparent and in the opaque portions.

It will be understood that the celluloid product thus described in connection with the showing in Figs. 1 and 2 may be secured to the front side of the glass support 25 as shown in Fig. 3 by cementing or otherwise securing it in place.

Referring particularly to the showing of the sign character 35 in Fig. 3, it will be understood that'it has the same construction and characteristics as have been described for the showing in Fig. 2, except that the body portion 36 is made of pressed glass rather than of celluloid shown in the preferred embodiment of the invention. It will thus be seen that in the showing in Fig. 3 there is disclosed an all-glass sign, and it is even within the scope of the disclosure to have the backing layers, particularly the opaque layer formed of glass colors and burnt into the glass following conventional practices in forming colored glass signs. In the case of the Cellophane or like composition forms, it is suggested that the backing layers be formed of any of the usual colors, dyes and the like, used in decorating celluloid articles.

In operation it will be understood that the characters such as the character H herein illustrated may be combined with other characters to form a word or other completed sign that when viewed by direct light as by the sunlight the appearance of any of the letters will be as indicated in Fig. 1 with the large size H exposed to view. When there is a light source in rear of the sign as suggested in the showing in Fig. 3 the light from a source L will pass through the transparent backing 33 and shining through the transparent body portion 3| or 36 will illuminate the transparent portion 34 so that this will become visible by transmitted or indirect light.

While there has been shown, described and pointed out in the annexed claims, certain novel features of the invention, it will be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form and details of the device illustrated and in its operation may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. 7

I claim:

7 1. A sign including a flexible support provided with a cut-out portion forming the outline of a character, a preformed celluloid character light in weight, fitting in said cut-out portion and secured at its edges to the support, said character comprising a character forming portion projecting through the cut-outs, said portion having its central part transparent and the part between the transparent central part and the outer edge of the character forming portion being opaque and providing on its exposed outer side a bright light reflecting surface.

2. A sign including a support, a sign character provided with an outlining flange secured to the support and having a concavo-convex portion projecting from the plane of the attaching flange and forming a design, said concavo-convex portion being formed of three superposed layers, the front layer being formed of a transparent material of substantially uniform thickness and the other two layers-constituting relatively thin backing layers with the intermediate layer being opaque and having an opening or openings therein forming a centrally positionedcharacter stroke constituting a small design simulating the large design formed by said concavo-convex designforming portion, the rear layer being transparent and colored, and a source of light on the concaved intermediate layer forminga metallic coating outlining the edges of the exposed portion and tenninating in spaced relation to said edges to form a blank space forming a duplication in reduced size of the design and the rear layer being transparent and colored and visible through the blank space and through the transparent celluloid.

4. Asign including a flexible canvas support,

a substantially all-celluloid preformed character provided with attaching flanges secured to the flexible support, said character comprising three layers of material, a main celluloid layer of transparent material, an intermediate opaque layer outlining the celluloid layer and providing an opening within its outline, said opening having a shape forming a sign character and a backing layer of transparent material extending at least across the opening formed by the intermediate layer and said support having a cut-out portion opposite the opening in the intermediate layer whereby light from the rear of the sign may pass through thesupport, through the sign character opening formed by the intermediate layer and through the transparent celluloid and backing layers extending across said opening.

5. A sign including a flexible support, a substantially all-celluloid preformed character provided with attaching flanges secured to the flexible support, said character comprising three layers of material, a main celluloid layer of transparent material, an intermediate opaque layer outlining the celluloid layer and providing an opening within its outline having the shape of a letter and a backing layer of transparent material extending at least across the opening formed by the intermediate layer and said support having a cut-out portion opposite the opening in rear of the sign may pass through the support,

through the letter-shaped opening formed by the intermediate layer and through the trans-- parent celluloid and backing layers extending across said opening, and said character exteriorly bordered by and thus outlined by the flexible canvas at the cut-out portion and interiorly bordered by the showing of the intermediate opaque layer visible through the transparent celluloid layer.

6. A slightly flexible sign character including a body portion formed of a transparent and colored material forming a character, the sides of said body portion being partially backed by a layer of opaque material visible through the transparent body portion forming a character stroke within its outlines and forming a border outlining the body portion and said colored material giving its color to the showing of the opaque layer.

7. A slightly flexible sign character including a body portion formed of a transparent and colored material forming a character, said body portion being partially backed by a layer of opaque material visible through the transparent body portion and forming a border outlining the character and said colored material giving its color to the showing of the opaque layer, and said border providing a brilliant light reflecting area visible through the body portion from the front side of the sign character.

8. A sign character including a thin-shell body portion formed of a transparent material forming a character and the sides of said body portion being partially backed by a layer of opaque material forming a silvered metallic reflecting surface visible through the transparent body portion and forming a brilliant border outlining the body portion and itself forming a character stroke, a layer of color backing both the border and the parts of the body portion exposed through the border and coloring the character stroke and. means providing an outer opaque border to the silvered metallic reflecting surface.

9. A sign character provided with a flat attaching flange outlining the same and formed within the flange with a raised portion forming a letter, said letter forming portion including a hollow body portion formed or transparent material and provided on its concaved side with a layer of opaque material forming an outlining border to the letter, visible through the body portion from the convex side thereof and forming within its bordering outline and opening constituting a duplication of the letter in reduced size and a layer of transparent material on the concaved side of the letter, back-lapping both the opaque layer to protect the rear side of the same and engaging the portion of the rear side of the body portion which extends across the opening formed by the opaque border.

SAMUEL SLUTSKY. 

